APPLETON – For nearly three decades, the strange affair of “The Phantom of the Opera” has wowed more than 130 million people across the globe and, in the process, become one of the most successful entertainment ventures of all time.

Yet when the chilling and instantly recognizable first notes of the “Overture” flood the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center next week, theater-goers will be in for a fresh and revitalized Opera Populaire experience.

This North American tour, launched in Rhode Island in November, is an overhaul from what visited the Fox Cities PAC in 2004 — or any other that theater-goers may have come across since the masked man first showed up in London in 1986. It’s also the first “Phantom” tour to play American venues in three years.

“I think when ‘Phantom’ was then approaching its 25th anniversary — remarkably — Cameron (Mackintosh) looked at it and said ... ‘What would be the greatest gift I could give to the original but to take the original and build from there with everything we’ve learned over the years from it and lets conceive of a new production,’” said associate director Seth Sklar-Heyn. “Let’s conceive of a new physical world for Andrew’s music to inhibit and introduce the piece in a new way to audiences new and old.”

The production, which will move from Schenectady, N.Y., to Appleton in 20 semi trucks, features new sets, lighting, direction and choreography, along with some tweaks to the costumes and score. Although still one of the largest shows on the road, streamlining and downsizing was another goal of the redesign, helping to shed more than half of the time for setup and take-down.

“I think the biggest difference between the two productions — scale is there, spectacle is there, there’s fire, there’s smoke, there are things flying, there’s automation, all those elements — it’s the concept of the new design that’s the biggest difference,” Sklar-Heyn said.

“The original production was set within that back lacquered box of space, that void that scenes sort of emerged from. Now we’re trying to ground the show in a little bit more of a naturalistic, realistic world of the theater.”

As with making changes to any beloved work, Sklar-Heyn said, there was some initial hand-wringing from the “Phantom” diehards. But their fears were soon escorted to the catacombs.

“The biggest concern from everybody a year ago before the tour started in the fall was, Is there a chandelier? Yes. There is a chandelier,” he said. “ … of course there’d be a chandelier. It’s a necessary element to the story. The chandelier has to be there.”

Linda Balgord, a New Lisbon, Wis., native who has spent the past six months playing Madame Giry, called the new digs “wonderful” and said the new direction is an added benefit for her character.

“She’s a ballet mistress and she brings notes from the Phantom and she’s kind of a mysterious person, and she’s the person in the backstage of the opera house and I love that they’ve been able to ... kind of bring the audience backstage in a way that wasn’t done originally,” Balgord said. “I think that’s one of the things that’s really special about this production. That the audience kind of gets to see the grittier backstage area of the theater as opposed to the out-front of the opera house that’s very opulent and beautiful.”

Sklar-Heyn said due to the unstoppable nature of “Phantom,” it’s taken an unusual path to reinvention. More often, musicals that see a lot of success eventually run their course and get put to rest for a time, only to later be reborn with new creatives at the helm. With “Phantom” — a project he called a “freak of nature” — there was no time for shelving, and instead, the production was reworked while the original was still playing out on stages across the world.

“I think a lot of this has to do with Cameron Mackintosh, who was the producer with ‘Les Miz’ as well, when ‘Les Miz’ was approaching its 25th anniversary ahead of ‘Phantom,’” Sklar-Heyn said. “His thought was, ‘Let’s take what we’ve learned from 25 years of playing and adjusting and manipulating and re-conceiving of the original, making adjustments to the score, to the text, to the staging, and let’s come at it almost honoring the production with a new production.’”

Carrying out the goal of honoring the original “Phantom” is director Laurence Connor, choreographer Scott Ambler, set designer Paul Brown and costume designer Maria Bjornson. Their work amplifies the now seemingly timeless framework scribed by the playwrights, Webber and Stilgoe, and the century-old novel by Gaston Leroux.

“Part of the success of the original was taking advantage or archetypal figures and making them into these sort of iconic individuals in this story, which is a very simple story of wanting to be loved,” Sklar-Heyn said. “Be it Christine wanting to be loved in one way now that her father is dead or the Phantom wanting to be loved in another way because his mother shunned him and put a mask on his face and sent him out into the world to be ridiculed and judged and forced into isolation.”

Balgord said the director was aiming to connect audiences with the characters in new ways, and the more tangible sets help make that happen.

“I think that what Laurence (Connor) really is trying to do is draw the audience into the story and part of that is through taking them backstage and taking them into this little manager’s office where a lot of plotting goes on,” she said. “And also just the level that we’re playing the show. We’re playing very big houses on the road, they tend to be 2,000 and up most of them, but we are playing at a level that maintains the intimacy of the story and the intimacy of the personal relationships.”

A tale like “Phantom” can be dressed up in the flashiest of technology and retold on the grandest of scales. But, in the mind of many — Sklar-Heyn included — it’s Webber’s bracing score that’s kept the show soaring for decades like the Lot 666 chandelier.

“I think at the end of the day, the music is the core of it,” Sklar-Heyn said. “No matter what you put on that stage physically, no matter who is wearing what costume, no matter how the chandelier moves, no matter what walls are there or aren’t there, it’s absolutely the score. The show is built on Andrew’s score, it’s built on Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe’s lyrics. ... That’s sort of the be all, end all, that foundation.”

Shane Nyman writes for Appleton Post-Crescent Media

If you go

What: North American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera”

Tickets: $49 and up, available at the Fox Cities PAC ticket office, 920-730-3760 and foxcitiespac.com.

Also: Those attending the 2 p.m. matinee on June 14 should allow for extra travel time because of the Appleton Flag Day Parade. Street parking will be limited. Guests may find parking in the Green Ramp ($2) across Division Street from the PAC or can use the valet service ($12) at the Division Street entrance.